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Comcast to finish $400 million digital upgrade
MUMBAI: Even as India is in the initial stages of digitalisation, Comcast Corp. is in the final process of ending analogue delivery of signals to its Chicago customers by July. The cable giant is investing $400 million in the four-year upgrade of its network. Comcast will then start suburban upgrades which should end by 2008-end, the company has said. |
Customers will, thus, have to exchange their analogue set-top boxes for digital ones. Comcast vice president of sales and marketing Eric Schaefer was quoted in media reports to have said that the cable company would not charge an additional fee or raise rates for current analogue customers. Comcast will offer the set-top boxes at its office or mail it to their customers. The company will offer two additional high-definition channels in the coming months, increasing the total to 18 HD channels. The upgrade, though, has created space for as many as 120 HD channels, 400 digital channels and 10,000 streams of video on demand, Schaefer said. |
Comcast‘s efforts are in line with the Federal deadline that requires all broadcasters to send signals in a digital format by February 2009. |
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
